Welsh Journals

Music Education in Wales: The Case for Biography DAVID ALLSOBROOK It may seem surprising that in John Davies's monumental Welsh overview, Hanes Cymru (1993), he found little to say about the significance of music in the historical evolution of Wales. That omission is rather like writing the history of English society without mentioning cricket. In the twentieth century the importance of musical activity and accomplishment for the Welsh people has been nowhere more clearly represented than in the consistently developing place of music in the education system, formally and informally. But those who have written about such musical movements, in England as well as Wales, have used a broad brush or rather, perhaps, the neutral methodo- logical tools of the sociologist to depict the springs of energy which irrigated musical developments in modern society. From the general works of Henry Raynor, through Percy M. Young and on, more recently, to Dave Russell's incisive study of popular music, the emphasis has been more upon the development of institutions festivals, brass bands, male voice and mixed choirs as phenomena, and competitions of all kinds than on the significance of leading individuals.2 This may seem strange; for though making music is undoubtedly a communal, co-operative activity and a social necessity, it is also an individual discipline. It ought to be insisted that advances in music education, as in music itself, have depended, and will always depend, on the inspiration, visionary leadership and administrative capacities of enlightened, driven individuals. Committees can comment, sum- marize, supervise and urge; but ultimately musical advance needs individual initiative, example and effort for its encouragement, growth and sustenance. It can also be argued, incidentally, that the national eisteddfod, for instance, has had comparatively little in- fluence on general musical progress in Wales: that undoubtedly